Kinds of inspiration

[vatchvaalger]

Hello gang

Obviously other books are really big for inspiration, it would be hard to write without reading. But excluding that and other general types of media like shows and video games, where else do you all find inspiration? I have set to work off of classical songs (really any instrumental music, but classical is very expressive), interesting historical events, and contorted concepts that originated as simple observations of something completely unrelated. One time in high school when I was the new kid, I thought too much about how people listened to me and saw me and could be thinking about me, it sent me spiraling heavily, but at some point I veered off course and ended up with the outline of a story about a demon who torments a small town by very subtly, then increasingly altering the residents perceptions of things. What about you fellows?

 

[Homer Potvin]

interesting historical events

That's a good one. My formal education was in history, mainly because I found it interesting and thought it would be good for writing, through I never pursued in formally after graduation.

People watching is a big one for me, imagining what they're saying and doing and how they might have arrived at whatever situation caught my eye. Just the other day I was at a red light and there was a couple standing on the corner ahead of me with the door to the car open. They appeared to be saying goodbye but didn't want to leave. They appeared to be upset but not terribly so. They appeared to have something to say but maybe couldn't find the words. I first thought they might be breaking up that didn't seem to fit. Then I thought one of them might have had to move away but that didn't seem to fit. Then I thought they might be have been cheating on somebody else and were reconciling the reality of that in an acute moment on the street corner. Then I thought I wanted burgers for dinner and the light turned green and I forgot all about the couple. The whole encounter lasted maybe 20 seconds, but I do that all the time. I spent my whole life working in restaurants and would hear literally hundreds of bits of non-contextual dialogue dialogue walking past bars and tables every day. Maybe even thousands. I had one joint that served around eighty thousand guests a year and I made eye contact and said hello at the very least to every single of them.

I think in its purest form, writing occurs on the scene level. Stories and characters and narrative complexities usually get sparked from a scene idea. Maybe it's different for others, but I never wrote anything that didn't start with a scene that popped in my head. And those scenes were usually inspired by something I saw or overheard in real life. To use the above example, I probably wouldn't set out to write a story about the moral grey area of infidelity. But that particular moment I saw at a red light put a scene in my head that could have fit into a story about the moral grey area of infidelity.

The egg before the chicken you would call that?

 

[JT Woody]

Music is a moderately sized inspiration for me. I have 1 story that was published that was inspired by recording of a hymn from the late 1800s. Its grainy and haunting, so i wrote a ghost story.

Long car rides, my mind tends to wander as i watch the changing landscape. I went to Traverse City and on the way there, driving through small towns and farmland, i wrote a story about a dead hitchhiker that haunts the man who murdered her and left her body on the side of a stretch of highway.

(Seeing a pattern? No, me neither...)

Sometimes real life becomes inspiration. Like, random cooincidences and "what-ifs".
I had a childhood friend who passed away in 2020. When writing a relfection on our friendship for his memorial wall, it inspired a novel of mine (the characters werent inspired by us, but how they met was).

 

[Madman Starryteller]

If I disregard entertainment media, then a lot of inspiration can come from just reading bits and pieces of science/space articles. History, like has been mentioned, is also an inspiration.

And of course, music. I like classical, but also medieval and renaissance music. Sometimes when I listen, I see a big feast in some sky palace where people dance and eat.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Good sentences have given rise to a couple of my books. One was an ending sentence, the other a beginning sentence. I had to write an entire story in order to figure out why someone would utter either.

History has absorbed a lot of my attention over the years. I've written historical novels since I was in junior high school, so no surprise that the two currently in print come under that heading. Contemporary has never appealed to me, mostly because time marches on so quickly.

Nature inspires me, too. A nature-inspired story won me a week-long residency at a national monument and a short story collection won the 2023 Neltje Blanchan award for work inspired by nature.

Human interactions with domestic animals interest me and feature prominently in my stories. Ghosts, weather, family stories, and natural disasters also provide ideas.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

People are fascinating. Sometimes recording as is, without authorial embellishment, is enough.

I was once waiting in line at a shop in Limerick's city centre. Ahead of me, a woman was putting stuff through the self-checkout when she was approached by a security man who told her she was not permitted on the premises, that she was barred for having stolen blankets the previous day. She loudly protested her innocence, declaring that she could not have been stealing blankets the previous day because she was in Mountjoy prison the previous day. This went on a little while until she reluctantly left, though her male friend stepped in to complete her transactions. I walked behind a little bit as we were headed the same direction and overheard him telling her that the security man had got it all wrong, that he was actually barred for stealing and shouldn't have been served. He also suggested she take a case against the shop "for definition of character. You could get five grand for definition of character." That piece of legal advice made it exactly into a story of mine that I workshopped back in old town.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

He also suggested she take a case against the shop "for definition of character. You could get five grand for definition of character."

There are many first responders in my family, current and retired, including me. If I wrote police or courtroom drama, the stories I've heard and observed would be an endless source of inspiration. Of course, one would have to disguise characters and events carefully in order to not be sued for definition of character.

Side note: an attorney I worked for said one should only sue for defamation of character if one's character was absolutely pristine, lacking even slight shadows, because all foibles would be revealed in open court.

 

[vatchvaalger]

Good sentences have given rise to a couple of my books. One was an ending sentence, the other a beginning sentence. I had to write an entire story in order to figure out why someone would utter either.

That is such an interesting concept, I love that so much. May I ask what exactly the sentences were, and the general idea of what you ended up with?

 

[vatchvaalger]

Sometimes when I listen, I see a big feast in some sky palace where people dance and eat.

My mother would always talk about experiences like this, though personally, I only ever get them for particularly evocative pieces like vertigo by royer.

 

[vatchvaalger]

Maybe it's different for others, but I never wrote anything that didn't start with a scene that popped in my head.

No absolutely, unless I have a specific concept in mind, thats exactly how I do it as well.